Canal Date 04 September 2011
Travels 13 1/2 miles, 4 locks
Current Location Audlem -- Shropshire Union Canal
They say that you have not fully given up smoking untill you can not remeber when you last had a cigarette. It that rule applies across the board then I have given up falling in as I can not remember when the last time was
Thursday 1 September 2011
A nice sunny morning. We decided to stay here a bit longer, it is a nice quiet spot. After breakfast we and re-varnished lounge/dinning area. The varnish stinks vile now so we took the dog for a walk across the fields. What a supprise, we ended up at a pub, we soon decided that although we had not long had lunch, it was time for an early dinner. The food was very good indeed, especially as it was from the 2 for a tenner menu. We walked back to the boat. By this time the varnish was touch dry and much of the odour had gone.
Friday, 2 September 2011 Church Minshull
We spent a few hours replacing all the fittings and fixtures we removed yesterday, it took us much longer to put things back than it did to remove them. After latish lunch we set of to find new moorings for the weekend. We were aiming for a small village called Church Minshull, only about 2 miles along the canal. We stopped and moored up at the visitor moorings. Just as we had finished mooring up, a passing boat told us that the moorings are much nice 200 yards further on. So once again we set off in search of the better mooring site. It was worth the effort, canal is elevated above the surrounding countryside and the views are epic. It is still nice and quiet. The tow path is not used as much as most areas. A good spot indeed!
Saturday, 03 September 2011 Church Minshull
This is a nice canal, it is much quieter than I expected. It travels almost entirely through rural farming country. This location does have superb views but it suffers from the Shropshire union disease. There is a shelf below the water line. This caused two problems.
1- you can not get right into the bank,
2 - you can not get fenders down to the shelf so every time another boat passes we bang against the shelf causing a loud nd anoying crashing noise.
With these views it is a small price to pay.
We went for a walk to the village, the church is a fine building and looks far too prosperous for such a small village. It is a large and very well kept building, we were made very welcome when we looked inside. We then went next door to the other village essentials, the pub. This has not long re-opened after many years of being boarded up. It is very nice and up market as one may expect from this type of village. The food and service were second to none, but that is reflected in the prices.
When we returned to the boat, there were boats everywhere. We no longer have the luxury of having the bank to ourselves!
Sunday, 04 September 2011 Church Minshull to Audlem
Miles --- 13 1/2 Locks --- 4
We set off at 10.30 and was soon at the first lock. There was a queue of 5 boats in front of us. About an hour later we were through the lock and heading for the next, about 1 ½ miles away. I went nice and slowly so that any backlog would clear before we arrived at the lock. It almost worked. There was only one boat in front of us. After clearing that lock we were soon at Barbridge Junction where the Middlewich branch joins up with the main Shropshire union canal. It made a very pleasant change to travel mainly lock free, very different from out last few days of travel. The weather stayed dry and sunny but it does go cool when the sun goes in. There is still a lot of traffic on the canal, I do hope that it quietens down now the brats (Children?) are back in school. We made it to our arrival point, just before Audlem. It is the same place as we were last year, over the top of the river weaver. A nice spot indeed.
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